Elliott, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Elliott, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Elliott lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Elliott — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Elliott — the short answer
Elliott, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 7
- Grenada County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- Grenada County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~255
- Grenada County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Grenada County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Elliott's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elliott's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elliott
Each reading below is measured for Elliott itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsElliott runs about 255 days between hard freezes (read from Grenada County, the closest normal to Elliott) — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredElliott sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Elliott is in
Elliott sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Elliott's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grenada County.
What Grows in Elliott
Every plant below cleared Elliott's own zone 8a and its 255-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elliott?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Elliott
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elliott. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Unit Training Equipment SiteUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Hankins Lumber CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HANKINS LUMBER COMPANY INC, ELLIOTTToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- Morgan'sUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Morgan & SonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- THOMAS WOOD PRESERVING INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- THOMAS WOOD PRESERVING INCToxics Release Inventory · 2000 ft
- PIONEER SOUTHERN INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- Gant's StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- OMNISOURCE SOUTHWEST LLC - ELLIOT FACILITYBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Thomas WoodUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Heatcraft IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elliott's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Elliott.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elliott
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elliott
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elliott, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Elliott — Toxics Release Inventory (14 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (116 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Elliott
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elliott average
Your land is one point inside Elliott
Everything above resolves to Elliott as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Grenada County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Elliott Average
Elliott Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Elliott
- ●One soil character for all of Elliott
- ●Frost dates read at Elliott's scale: Mar 7 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elliott's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elliott
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elliott, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elliott averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elliott — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elliott average
How we know this about Elliott
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Grenada County’s record, because none resolves here; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Elliott
When does frost risk typically end in Elliott?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elliott typically lands around Mar 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Mar 28.
When is the first frost in Elliott?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elliott typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 255 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elliott?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elliott sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 7 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 28 to Nov 3, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elliott?
The federal record around Elliott is a meaningful one — 188 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (116), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Elliott?
From about Oct 18 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Elliott's scale — its 8a band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elliott's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Elliott’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Elliott's own scale — the 2,896 acres it covers and 188 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elliott's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 188 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elliott, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elliott's boundary and the 2,896 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Elliott's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Elliott has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Grenada County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Elliott's 2,896 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grenada County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grenada County
- The growing challenges every Mississippi grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Mississippi
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Grenada County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elliott's 2,896 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elliott you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,896 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Elliott-wide figureread your own land →
More in Mississippi
Wider growing context
What grows across MississippiElliott sits outside our named growing regions, so Mississippi as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides